Kendrick Perkins could have simply said that he regrets voting for Rudy Gobert for this past season’s Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Only that wouldn’t be the former NBA center-turned-ESPN analyst’s style.
Rather, while discussing Gobert’s on-court struggles in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Western Conference Finals matchup with the Dallas Mavericks, Perkins called helping vote the French center to his fourth Defensive Player of the Year Award — tying him with Ben Wallace and Dikembe Mutombo for the most in NBA history — “the biggest regret in my media career.” Furthermore, Big Perk proceeded to state that he has decided to retire from voting on NBA regular-season awards moving forward as a result of Gobert’s performance.
“I am retiring from voting for individual awards, regular-season awards, because I have done a disservice in using my voting rights,” Perkins said on ESPN’s First Take. “Me voting this season for Rudy Gobert is an embarrassment for me for Defensive Player of the Year. He’s the first player that we see every single time in the postseason that becomes a defensive liability. Don’t come giving me these analytics. Don’t come giving me these plus/minus stats, because that’s the most overrated stat in the NBA.”
Kendrick Perkins says that he’s embarrassed he used his Defensive Player of the Year vote on Rudy Gobert and calls it the biggest regret of his media career.
“He has tarnished the Defensive Player of the Year award. He has. He’s not respected by his peers. We saw what happened… pic.twitter.com/P4ykITaNZu
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) May 28, 2024
Perk didn’t stop there, as he expressed his belief that Gobert’s performance wasn’t just a reflection on him, but the Defensive Player of the Year Award, in general.
“He has tarnished the Defensive Player of the Year Award. He has,” Perkins insisted. “He’s not respected by his peers. We saw what happened to him in Denver series, he couldn’t even guard the person at his position. Karl-Anthony Towns did a better job at that. What is he doing right now? When you look at this series right now, do we realize Rudy has three blocks in three games? He’s averaging one block per game at 7’3. Unacceptable to say he’s a four-time Defensive Player of the Year.”
To Perkins’ point, Gobert already possesses a unique legacy as one of the greatest regular-season defensive players in league history, who has also been considered unplayable at times in the postseason. Surely, there might have been a less dramatic way for Perkins to express that. But the 39-year-old also didn’t become one of the faces of ESPN’s NBA coverage by holding back.
